YOUR OPINION: Letters to the editor

Death-row punishment outranks
gun control as justice’s answerGun control is not the answer. Punishment is the answer. Empty death row and let’s make a statement by not letting people sit for years to be fed and housed with our tax dollars when we know they did the unthinkable of killing innocent people. If they are so mentally ill, how can they have enough sense to murder anyone?Linda DickensTupelo

American culture tosses
baby with the bathwaterI respond to an op-ed piece of the Sun Herald of Biloxi/Gulfport by pointing out that we are overlooking the documented contention of one of our distinguished and wise forefathers that there cannot be morality without religion. In our secular-progressive zeal to rid our nation of this antiquated notion that man is intrinsically much more than a human animal, we have managed to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It is only marginally possible to control teenage or adult sexual behavior when every conceivable medium in our information age advertises, glamorizes, promotes destructive behaviors of every kind and our government agencies stand ready to lend support and in doing so reward irresponsibility.
What will prevent us from going over the morality-cliff with its expensive consequences, both in terms of ruined lives and in our pocketbook as we all must pay for it?Ilona BauerTupelo
Johnson column gave deep
offense to all evangelicalsI have to wonder if the Daily Journal has any standards when it comes to the pieces that syndicated columnists turn in for publication.
Publishing Rheta Johnson’s column on Dec. 29 headlined “False prophets should pray for guidance” makes me doubt it. I found nothing of redemptive value in her thinly veiled diatribe against evangelical Christianity. While I may feel uncomfortable digesting opinions that are very different from mine I really do not appreciate the insulting and demeaning slash and burn tactics of Johnson decrying James Dobson and Focus on the Family and Bryan Fischer and the American Family Association as “despicable” and the corresponding insult aimed at “Millions of our fellow citizens [who] make it possible for Dobson and his ilk to preach, prosper and multiply.”
What I got from Johnson is that she is more disturbed about the response of certain family advocates concerning the tragedy at Sandy Hook than the atrocity that was committed. The only time she mentioned the shooter she tainted it “his own Old Testament-style wrath.” Apparently, the only standards to be applied are to those with conservative values. If you are on the left you can insult whomever you want on the right, including their millions of followers, while demanding those you trash to pray for “their own sick souls.”
I don’t expect to not be offended occasionally when reading the opinion pages in a newspaper. But I would appreciate some measure of oversight by the editor when a columnist unloads his or her vitriol on “millions” of people who support an organization the columnist despises. Perhaps it would be better if Johnson published a list of acceptable organizations to support?Ray RooneyTupelo